Excerpt: Crystals

In my dream all were standing in front of me, Ammietia, Lily and Lyra. The only distinguishable feature on them all were the colors of their clothing. Their faces were gone- long forgotten. Their hair was limp and colorless, just colorlessness, emptiness. There but not there. That was the first shock. I fell to my knees. This was the point that I found my stomach dropping. The point that I felt ready to faint. The point that I thought I'd never get back up again.

And then they started talking with that under water sound. Words that made no sense. Words that made me want to understand them, but never became clear. And slowly, they started sinking into the ground. Into water. Into a deep abyss, a pit of black with rippling edges. Their voices became more faint and more garbled. I could hear Lyra's sobs. Lily's laugh. Ammietia's soothing voice. I screamed, clawed at the water, begged them to come back. But they didn't. I was alone. Crying. Pleading. Alone.

When I woke up, I was already screaming. The pillow could do nothing, not even stop the flow of tears. My screams echoed through the house. Damien and Mariam rushed in, I took no notice. As I screamed, I forced myself to remember anything i could about them, and relieved that I could even if lily was still foggy. But still the screams ripped from my throat, until my throat could no longer produce them, and I stuck to crying in Damien's arms.